Cable companies start playing games

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SAN FRANCISCO--While the video game world prepares for the impending release of the next generation of consoles, the market for casual games is quietly expanding to new markets thanks to cable modems and broadband television services.

This week, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association gathered for its annual convention at the Moscone Convention Center. While most show attendees divided their time between two large expo floors dedicated to cable channels and broadcasting equipment, a small section of the convention center was set aside for gameNET, a game-focused enclave.

Billed as "an interactive gaming experience plus cutting-edge exhibits from game publishers, developers, and infrastructure providers," gameNET showcased the growing field of cable-service-provided games on demand.

With the convention proper focusing heavily on the emergence of HDTV and on-demand video services, gameNET followed suit by addressing both issues. Pixel Play, a New York-based on-demand game company, showed off its cable-based games built around the Tetris, Monopoly, Scrabble, Centipede, and Asteroids brands. The market for such games, said a spokesperson, is the emerging casual gamer--typically a female over the age of 40 who is married and has two children.

The rest of the exhibits at gameNET focused on in-house-designed intellectual property and simple games that could be played with a remote control. Zodiac Gaming showed off its long line of titles designed as set-top box games, playable on the latest cable hardware from Scientific Atlanta. The company also introduced a new 3D golf game at the show.

Alexander Libkind, CEO of Zodiac Gaming, said that "Zodiac is proud to release another innovation to the cable industry--it's another example of how our cutting-edge R&D brings value to the cable customer."

Buzz words aside, the primitive nature of the games being shown at gameNET belie the profits that cable companies expect to reap with such entertainment applications. Along with new methods of distribution, a large portion of the show was dedicated to discussing payment plans and pricing structures.

Most cable companies are hoping to charge customers on a per-play basis, as evidenced by a roundtable discussion held at gameNET, titled "Revenue models explored: Pay-per-play, subscription, and advergaming." Alternate options of revenue gathering include selling banner ads that are displayed during gameplay and selling monthly-fee packages for access to game archives.

As such, the favorite topic among gameNET attendees was "massively multiplayer online gaming." The interest displayed by attendees, however, was not in the actual gameplay, nor in the development costs associated with such games. The real lure to cable providers was the promise of the monthly subscription fees associated with such games.

To that end, the recently infamous subscription-based Legend of Mir 3 was shown in a makeshift cybercafe in the gameNET vicinity. Some readers may recognize this game as probable cause for a stabbing death in Beijing on March 30 when a gamer was killed after selling an expensive (and borrowed) sword online.

Some attendees expressed an interest in seeing this and other games ported to cable hardware, but there were no plans announced at the show to transfer such titles.

While the games-on-demand sector isn't quite as cutthroat as the trading of taunts and occasional crime sprees seen in the MMORPG space in Asia, the space here in North America is definitely heating up.